No excuses this time - Bothroyd

Last updated : 04 March 2011

England cap Bothroyd says his dream is to play in the top flight for Cardiff.

"This season there's can't be no excuses - we've got all the players, all the talent and I feel we've been doing pretty well," he said.

But Bothroyd hinted he would have to consider a move to the Premier League next season even if Cardiff failed to go up.

The 28-year-old's contract runs out at the end of the season and has already been linked with a top-flight switch.

"There's obviously stuff I'd have to think about at the end of the season, but I'm not focused on that right now," said Bothroyd.

"I'm very focused on getting to the Premier League with Cardiff. I love the place - I think the fans deserve to see Premier League football and hopefully we can do that."

Bothroyd has twice seen that dream of playing in the Premier League come to nothing since arriving at Cardiff from Wolverhampton Wanderers in August 2008

In his first season, the Bluebirds missed out on reaching the play-offs by a goal after a disastrous run-in.

And last season, they were beaten 3-2 by Blackpool in the play-off final, in which Bothroyd was forced off injured early into the game, hampering their chances.

But having seen new Malaysian owners take the financial reigns and finding himself playing alongside the likes of Craig Bellamy, Seyi Olofinjana and - last month - Aaron Ramsey, Bothroyd believes this should be Cardiff's season.

And he denies the club "bottled" their previous two attempts, insisting they lacked squad numbers.

He tells the BBC's Sport Wales programme: "I don't think it's bottling it. I just think sometimes we didn't have a massive squad. It's easy to make excuses and what-not.

"This season there's can't be no excuses - we've got all the players, all the talent and I feel we've been doing pretty well.

"Obviously we went through a period where we went on a losing run and that happens with every team. What matters is how you bounce back."

Bothroyd is also confident Cardiff and arch-rivals Swansea, who go into the weekend's Championship games one point above the Bluebirds in second, can win promotion.

"We're two clubs that are desperately ambitious for Premier League football and two clubs that are very equipped with Premiership players to play in that league and I don't see why not," he said.

"Hopefully we'll both have to go up and it will be great for Wales, so fingers crossed."

Bothroyd, who has yet to play in the Premier League, became the first player in Cardiff's history to win an England cap, coming on as a substitute in his country's 2-1 defeat by France in November.

"That's the place to be and I suppose if you want to play at international level, you need to be in that pool week-in, week-out," he added.